Free Agency Is Nigh

With the NBA's official free agent period beginning in mere hours, Aaron and Evan talk about the significant signings and trades that have already occurred—beginning with a discussion of another offseason where LeBron wants people to know how much he wants to win, while the Clippers commit to another likely first-round exit. Rafael Stone apparently agrees with Aaron's optimistic speculation on Jabari Smith Jr (31:11). Aaron goes scorched earth on the Pelicans’ last week of decisions (39:54). And then, a discussion about what the Malik Beasley news does for Detroit's offseason plans (1:05:54). 

Link to Aaron's Draft Day Spectacular!

As always, you can find Evan and Aaron on NBA Threads

Also, don't forget to subscribe to Live. Breathe. Ball. and Basketball Intelligence to get even more basketball insight.

Chapters

• 31:11 JBJ stock on the rise
• 39:54 Aaron unloads on the Pelicans
• 1:05:54 Does Detroit double-down or fold on Malik Beasley?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the No Gimmies Podcast. This is our first off-season podcast. And we have a little something called NBA Free Agency. It starts on Monday night at 6 p.m. Here we are. It starts tomorrow night. Yeah, wink, wink, although there's a lot of things being announced. My favorite thing, just real quick, and I know, like, I love how we do this. NBA free agency starts at 6 p.m. and somehow there's like 15 deals that roll out at 6.01 p.m. That's just how hard they work, Aaron. That's how hard the agents and the teams work. Stuff happens fast in the league. It's so fast that they can get the stipulations and everything talked out on a player going to a brand new team on a contract. that's 60 pages long within that short period of time. You just don't want it bad enough, which is why you, you know, that's why you don't have hustle culture, bro. Yeah, I'm a restaurant morals guy. I'm the type of person that ends up with Ben Simmons at the back end of free agency, and then I'm just showing sizzle videos all season to make sure everybody knows he's back in the lab. Well, as you can clearly see, Aaron and I are enjoying the NBA offseason. We're enjoying our first First podcast where there's no actual basketball being played. This is all transactional NBA stuff. And it is 740 on a Sunday night. So we have less than 24 hours to go. That's Eastern time because my buddy Aaron over there, it's mid afternoon in Vegas. And I am your host, Evan Cook. I'm joined as always by Aaron Bullwinkle. Aaron, I guess we got to start somewhere. So we might as well start with The GOAT, LeBron James? I mean, LeBron doing what LeBron does, which is making sure he gets top billing in any conversations in the offseason. You were the one that informed me about the letter that Rich Paul sent, which I'm going to let you kind of synopsize in a moment. But for those out there, anybody that's responding to any of this stuff, like, please remember that every single summer we do some variation of this with LeBron, even in the summers where we don't have the question as to whether or not he's opting in or opting out, which has been so rare. because of these one plus ones and two plus ones that he's kind of signed in perpetuity for the last 12 years. But like, this is probably much ado about nothing, but we do have to have the conversation. So just to put everything into context, LeBron and the Lakers are like the woman who wears white to somebody else's wedding. They have to make sure that the attention is on them somehow, even though None of this is about that. If the spotlight is not on LeBron and the Lakers for too long, they get a little antsy in their pantsy. They get a little upset. So they find a way to dominate the storylines. So we found out today that LeBron James, who every year loves to complain about how the team hasn't provided him with enough help to eventually win a championship the way that he wants, though he's never taken a pay cut in order to make that happen. LeBron opts into his$52.6 million Now that is significant because like Aaron said, most of the time LeBron opts out of the final year of his deal and signs a 1 plus 1 or a 2 plus 1. Gives him a little flexibility, keeps his money coming in, but gives the team a little, gives himself and the team a little bit of flexibility instead of signing these long super max contracts like we're used to seeing. But then his agent and good friend, Rich Paul, They released a letter putting a little bit of pressure on the new Lakers front office and Lakers ownership. So this is the quote. This is from Rich Paul. This is what he said. This is two paragraphs. He said, LeBron wants to compete for a championship. He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. So immediately, my first thought is he's saying that even though the Lakers were the number three seed, in the playoffs this year. They didn't have a realistic chance of winning at all despite trading for Luka Doncic. I know, I know. We'll get there. I just wanted to make sure that I pointed that out. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Jeannie Buss and Rob Palenka and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career. We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at this point in his life and career. This language is very pointed. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive, and want what's best for him. Aaron, what's your initial reaction to that letter from Paul? Even saying that this is much ado about nothing most of the time, it's a little bit of lip service, they're doing what they're supposed to do. My immediate reaction, I have thoughts. I just want to know yours. My initial reaction is this feels like a letter that we've been read from LeBron's camp like three or four times. Now, whether or not that's just me creating the concept of this exact kind of language before, but this almost feels boilerplate for what LeBron does in the offseason, which is like this passive pressure to make sure the organization knows that he wants to get his way. Now, plenty of the times it's in the roster moves that are built around him that they've been so falsely accurate. like they have no part in when we all know that that's complete BS. And a few times I feel like it's also been about how he can express like, hey, I'm either going to leave a la Cleveland or you guys are going to do the things that I want you to do. This has happened with him so many times, but what's different here, and I think it's reflected in the fact that he opted in, is he doesn't have the stroke in this situation the way that he used to. LeBron is incredibly valuable as a entity in terms of driving numbers in the seats. But if you're the Lakers, that's not a problem for yourself. And as a player on the floor, as great as he is and as impressive as he was last year, nobody was going to pay him$53 million to perform for them next year, particularly because nobody really had the money. So LeBron can sit here and do this in grandstand and they can do all of these things. But honestly, the Lakers can go, we don't care. You opted in, come play, don't play, do whatever you want to do. Now for their sake, I'm sure they're going to explore whatever they can and what the trade options are, but they're very limited. Okay. I mean, that's a completely reasonable thing to say. I do want to put a couple other things into context, though. LeBron's been with the Lakers since 2018, so we're coming up on year seven. This is the second longest stint of his career in one place. That was the first run in Cleveland. He was there from 2003 until 2011, and then he was with Miami for four years, and then back to Cleveland for four years, and now he's been with the Lakers for seven. So, I mean, this is... his Lakers identity is almost as big a part of his identity as the Cleveland part, the Miami part, because he's been there for so long. Then obviously they've won a championship, but they've also had some really bad results as far as the season goes. I mean, they got bounced in the first round this past year. They missed the playoffs a couple of times. Other than the bubble championship, it's been a stint with the Los Angeles Lakers that's been marred by a lot of mediocrity. And so I know that LeBron, he has bigger aspirations than just basketball. He's obviously looking beyond that. He's a billionaire. He wants to be an owner someday. There's expansion coming. I'm sure he's going to be a part of that in some form or fashion. But he does have something to prove as far as legacy goes because of... the number of championships that he has. He has the same number of staff. He has one less than Kobe. He has two less than Jordan and he's got three less than Robert Ori. So obviously, you know, I mean, if we're talking about people who won a lot of championships, Robert Ori is the goat. He's six behind Oscar. I'm sorry. I'm Bill Russell. Bill Russell's the goat. Let's get it straight. The man doesn't have enough fingers for his way. It's just a joke about how race culture is stupid, but yeah, Because everyone judges it based on championships. But LeBron's basing his legacies on championships as well. Now, I think he has no reason to leave L.A. He's got acting. His kids and his family live there. He lives there full-time. He has no reason to actually leave. But let's play this out. There's only two places, if he were to leave, that would make sense if he's actively trying to win a championship. That is Cleveland... And that is the New York Knicks. Those are the only two places that make any lick of sense for LeBron to go. But then again, like you said, we're talking$53 million. A lot of teams are cash strapped. They don't have the flexibility to absorb a contract like LeBron's. And the reason that he wants to put this letter out there and make all this about winning a championship is because I feel like he realizes the end is getting near. I know that he doesn't know if he wants to play one more year or multiple more years. But father time, he's defied it for as long as anybody has ever done it. But it's going to catch up to him eventually. So first of all, the whole thing is about him still trying to chase legacy. But the one thing that I do want to make sure, like, This letter is just kind of an evolution of the talk that's come out of his camp year after year. And I think in general, it's all kind of based upon legacy. And I do agree that the timeline is reaching whatever, getting closer and closer to its eventual end. But this is like the fourth season. It's like LeBron wants to make sure the organization knows that he's doing this and then he doesn't do anything to provide the organization the flexibility to do so. And that's really the crucial point here. And that's the thing where I think there's actually fair and justifiable criticism of LeBron. I'm all for any player getting their money. Get your money. I think the owners agree. He's a billionaire. Hold on. But I'm just saying, at the end of the day, if business is what drives this, first, I'm all for it. But to your point and to the point I was about to make, we just watched Jalen Brunson do exactly the thing that LeBron could have done. LeBron could have opted out. He could have signed for less. He could have given the Lakers a lot more flexibility to add the pieces that can make this roster an actual championship roster. And that's why at the end of this, that letter means absolutely nothing to me because the words mean far less than actions. And your actions tell me that your commitment is what LeBron has always done. And this is a fair criticism of a player I absolutely love. But LeBron likes to completely shirk accountability for the circumstances that he puts an organization in from his demands from a salary standpoint and an expectation standpoint that's okay heavy is the head that wears a crown when you're that awesome you get to kind of force that leverage but let's just be real about it and let's just call it what it is no I completely agree well let's stay with the Lakers and let's talk about what they can do around him so Dorian Finney-Smith declined his player option of$15.4 million today, and he is set to become an unrestricted free agent. So he's got a lot of leverage because he does a lot of stuff that the Lakers need from him. He's a great 3 and D guy. He's going to have a lot of interest from other teams. I've heard Houston is a front runner for Dorian Finney-Smith, which would be a great replacement for Dylan Brooks, whose defense will be sorely missed. And he's also a veteran player. He provides some of this veteran savvy that the Rockets, who are very young, obviously, you know, would need. So what are your thoughts on Dorian Finney and Smith? He's in a great position, I feel like. I get the Rockets thing, and I understand in general the concept of bringing Dorian Finney-Smith to the Rockets. My frustration with it is the guy that becomes the casualty of that trade is Jabari Smith Jr., who I just want to see given the appropriate opportunity in Houston. And I know, look, I'm obviously still on Jabari Smith Jr. Island. I don't know how many people are still out here. I'm going to go down with the ship where that's concerned. But literally, too, just because in terms of He's still an asset that's a tradable asset. Now, maybe Houston decides that if they get Dorian Finney-Smith, they move Jabari Smith Jr., and we see that. That wouldn't be surprising because he's at an extension point, and they have to make a decision on him. To me, the Rockets have kind of the veteran poise and savvy that they need, and Dorian Finney-Smith Jr. just has some redundancy with the guys that they have on the roster from what he's going to cost as a resource standpoint. But I'm also not going to... The last person any of us really get to fault right now is Raphael Stone. Ryan Russillo made the point. The dude's on a heater. Like, what he's done over the last three years ranks up there with the best GMs in the NBA right now. I think I went online and I said that. I was like, I love every move that Houston has made this offseason. And if they were to get DFS, I would have loved that move for them as well. Everything they're doing makes a ton of sense. Let's talk about how smart a piece of business the Fred Van Vliet signing as the original construct was, right, where everybody got the sticker shock when we saw the number for three years. But what he did was so intelligent in terms of making that player that be a team option on the third year when you knew this team was probably not going to be good enough until that point. And then they went, hey, we'll give you 60 cents on the dollar to come back. And so now instead of paying him 40 million for this coming season, they're going to pay him 25 million for the next two. Like just smart move. after smart move by this guy who really understood, you know, we keep saying timeline. I hate using it, but it is appropriate in the right. But it's great value for Fred, man. But just the machinations of understanding where the timeline of this team was and how that it's very much the Isaiah Hartenstein deal too, where it's like these guys that are playing four dimensional chess are the ones who really understand how they're leveraging the contracts of their veterans in the right way. And the DFS deal to me, If he makes it, then I trust Raphael Stone. But for me, I don't think you need to have that type of resource investment for a player that is additive, but also takes away from some of the development of the guys that you have there. So I just need to see what they're doing. But again, I wholly trust Houston's entire structural apparatus in terms of their decision-making, player development, and in player choices. Yeah, DFS is a little bit older. He is 32, but I wonder if he could get something like the deal that Caruso got when he got extended by the Thunder earlier this year. Caruso got a four-year$80 million. What if DFS gets offered like a three-year$60 million by Houston and the third year is a team option? I mean, that's still good business though, right? It is.$20 million feels a touch high, but... we're just talking about what the price is for guys like this, but, but I don't think so. I don't like if I'm Houston, DFS is not as impactful a player as Alex Caruso. So I think what I would, I'm just saying, I wonder that's the, maybe he set the market. Yeah, I'm just arguing kind of through it. So yes, and I would fully expect it would be something similar to what we see, a two plus one or a three plus one. Maybe they give him an additional year to ask him to take a little less money because this is his last big contract, right? Like the player is on a little bit of physical decline and he's at that age. I don't think DFS is going to be the same type of player at 36. I don't think that's a crazy thing to say or unfair to the player. So the Rockets do get to come in from that standpoint. So, but you're right, like four and seven 74 and 80 is probably the range it's going to go for. I want Jabari Smith Jr. to get all the minutes that the guy can get because I still really think that dude has something in him to be an impact player at this level. I'm biased. I'll take it. I'll own it. I'm fine with it. I'm not going to give up on him. All the people that listen to us know I've got my guys. I think you have my stock on him. I'm pretty sure we covered that. I was buying penny stocks. Mini stocks, that's right. Let's do one more Lakers bit of news, and we'll move on from there, and I'll just ask you real quick. Brooke Lopez and Clint Capella are two bigs that have been rumored that the Lakers are interested in. Do you have a preference on those two? I think they think they could get Capella for the MLE, for the mid-level exception, and then Lopez they would have to sign to some sort of actual contract. They can't just absorb him into one of those mid-level spots. What's your thoughts on those two as options for the Lakers? Of the two, I think it's got to be Capella because he's the more athletic of the two. He's the guy that's still got more left in the tank. Yeah, and if you're looking at the best pairings with Luka, it's a guy that's going to set a screen and then– Dive to the rim. Brooke Lopez is a stretch big. Brooke Lopez also has gotten to the point now where he's just such a liability in space that you're going to overextend what Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent have to do as point of attack defenders with him in that situation. Not that Capella is getting out there and like getting in front of guys, but he does just offer a little bit mobility on both ends in a way that I think is better for this Lakers organization. Yeah, I mean, you have to think, you know, as good as Brook Lopez has been defensively, and he's been very good. He's been a great, you know, but he is getting up there in age. And he's also been playing alongside some guy named Giannis Antetokounmpo. You know, and I don't think the Lakers have a guy like that. So it might be a little hard for Brook Lopez to be as impactful of a defender, especially like you said, if they're putting him in action all the time and he's playing that drop coverage with the way that the NBA's played now, he's just going to get torched and people are just going to be firing threes over the top of his head. And think about this. If you're the other team and you have Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Brook Lopez out on the floor, you are feasting on pick and roll. with whoever those guys are guarding you're running everything to get those guys in actions and the amount of open shots you're going to get on guys going under guys just kind of bailing out on the play like that isn't it's just not a functional way to build a defense for a team that kind of found a good defense in the second half of the year but also sort of got exposed uh once teams figured out what to do against them what are you talking about lucas skinny now Luka's got vengeance on his mind. Luka has been training with the same organization that trained Batman. Can I tell you what Luka's been doing? One of my favorite things about this is, I don't remember if it was two or three years ago, whenever it was one of the FIBA years, I always mix these up. But Luka came out and he looked very svelte and skinny, blah, blah, blah, in July, and everybody was showing this. And then he went and played international basketball and came back and looked like he had gained 30 pounds. So it was like he in the window between like the end of July and like the beginning of September, mid-September, he had put on a dish. He came back heavier than he had left, but we had seen all these things. So as cute as it is and like, hey, I respect any guy putting in the work on their body. One, I do think it's kind of the mandate of the job, but it still is, it's the differentiating factor of greatness to like the absolute upper echelons. And if Luka can do it, it changes everything. But I don't buy shit until I see him on the floor looking like he's 215 pounds, maybe 230. I mean, it's literally his job to be in shape and play basketball. And everyone's like, wow, look at the commitment from Luka. And I'm like, he's working out? The way basketball players do. I'm proud of you, I guess. But I don't understand like why we give this guy so much credit for being in shape whenever he like just refused to do so to the point that he got traded because the team that had him was so afraid that all the injuries that he's racked up were going to cost him the rest of his career. So when you show up 20 pounds overweight all the time, you don't get a pat on the back and you sure as shit don't get a cookie because we can't give you cookies because you're losing weight. I mean, the organization was afraid of him being in shape or they were part of the most ridiculous scheme to get the Lakers, who ended up being evaluated at$10 billion on a sale, the player that helped inflate the value of the franchise. But anyways... Nothing conspicuous about all of that. Just the craziest confluence of certain... I know O'Shea Jackson... I'm not touching it. I'm not touching it. I don't know if you saw O'Shea Jackson on Rich Eisen where he was even going down to the... All three of the players who tore their Achilles wore zero and pink shoes. That was... I'm not to that point, but... I want there to be a 30 for 30 like 20 years from now that explains to me every step about how this happened because the fact that Adam Silver played the role that he did in all this and then the Lakers sell for$10 billion is just like, I don't buy in the full conspiracy thing, but it is wild. It's crazy. I'm not touching that. I'm moving over to the other L.A. team. Where the big news today was that James Harden declined the last year of his contract and signed a new two-year$81.5 million contract to stay with the Los Angeles Clippers. Your reaction to that? If mediocrity treadmill was a contract, that was it. Hey, you know, he was very good last year. Was he 13 All-NBA or was he 13 All-NBA? He was very good last year. But here's the thing. James Harden is a great regular season performer. Awesome. You know what does not matter about the Clippers anymore is what the hell they do during the regular season. And they had to sign this contract, so I say that tongue-in-cheek. We said this two years ago, that they were putting themselves in a position where they were locking into James Harden, basically. They had to do this, and now they have to see it all the way through. But... We know what James Harden is. Like, I don't care about what he does during the regular season anymore. And this is just somebody who wrote a piece about how well he played during the regular season, in the regular season. But at the end of this, like, what did he do in game seven? You know, what did he look like at the end of a series that mattered? Always. And so what do we expect out of it? Like, this year, guess what? He's going to shoot 40%. He's probably going to be in the top five in assists. His points per game will probably be a little bit down because Kawhi will be healthy. And then come playoff time, he'll be great in game two and he'll suck by game six. Like, rinse and repeat. That's what they signed up

SPEAKER_01: 23:10

for.

SPEAKER_00: 23:11

No, I think I posted that on Threads. I was like, James Harden is who we think he is. Yeah. And I don't think that we need to sit here and belabor the point. He's still a good– impactful player during the regular season he'll have up and down roller coaster games in the playoffs and then he ultimately flames out that's what he's done in every one of his career in every one of the seasons that he's played and the only season he didn't was the one where Chris Paul you know got injured and then they missed 27 threes in a row that was his one shot and it didn't work out and I think now he's on he's on the sunset of his career and And as good as the Clippers are, they couldn't even get out of the first round. Can we talk about... how kind of from like a career narrative standpoint and just the general fortunes and concept of both franchise and player, how perfect of a fit James Harden is to retire as a Clipper. Like this is how this should go. The Clippers who have the third longest streak in NBA history of being above 500, but who still have not made it past the conference finals in the entire history of the organization, despite having several great runs with teams and just always seem to let down come playoff time. Like, player and fit, perfect. Like, player organization. They are great together. Hand in glove. Hand in glove, and the glove does fit, unfortunately. But since we're talking about the conference finals, let's talk about the Western Conference team that was in the Western Conference finals this past year, the Minnesota Timberwolves. They have two players they just re-signed. Julius Randle, three years,$100 million. Nas Reed, five years,$125 million. First thing I want to say about Nas Reed, every time I find out how old he is, I am surprised and shocked. I forget, and then the number comes back around, and I'm like, he's how old again? It's unbelievable that this guy, he looks 35, 40 years old. Yeah, but I mean, he was only in college for, what, two seasons, if I remember correctly? Yeah, it just feels like he's always been there. But they lock up a guy that is beloved by the fans and the franchise. Five years,$125 million. That's great value for a guy like Nas Reed, even with his interesting, let's put it that way, put it mildly, his interesting performance in this year's playoffs. He was a bit of a no-show against the Thunder, but he'd had some big games for them, and they tied into the first place long-term. In fairness, that was just a player who caught like an all-time cold streak. Now, I just got through burying James Harden for similar kind of letdowns. Yeah, but James Harden's done it for 10 years. No, you made my point for me. I was going to say Nas Reed doesn't have this body of work. It was just a guy– I mean, he missed 17 straight threes. At some point, you're just like, okay, this guy is on one of those head-banging colders instead of a heater. The thing that's cool about this is– There are not a lot of players who aren't superstars who I think are more representative and more beloved by an organization than Nas Reed. And so I think as a general fan base, all of us who watch the sport, who just kind of care about the sport and the narratives of the sport are happy to see this. Like I didn't want to go see Nas Reed in somebody else's uniform. He's been awesome for the Timberwolves. He's really a developmental success on their part. And he's been a fun player to watch and how he fits and works with Anthony Edwards and how they play and And the versatility that he offers is more important than I think people realize because he is a guy that can guard three fours and fives. He can kind of scale into positions. They had some fun looks where he was playing the small forward two years ago. They didn't do that as much as last season, just because it's a little bit tougher to fit with Julius Randall. But I like, I'm happy with this. It's a good deal. It's good values. A former six man of the year. He's a player that last year performed just as well as he did the prior year when he won six. Yeah. I don't know why he was overlooked in the six man of the year. I think you and I had talked about this. It's like they decided who the player was going to be, like who the six-man of the year was going to be in November. Peyton Pritchard won it in October. In all fairness, Malik Beasley probably bet on himself in November and didn't end up working out for him. Yeah, we're going to have to get to that at some point. I'm staying in the Western Conference for now, but we can go to the East. And when we do, we're going to have to talk about Malik Beasley. I did want to look at something real quick and just point this out to you. This is for next season. Okay. 35 million for Rudy Gobert, 45 million for Anthony Edwards, 33 million for Julius Randall, 25 million for Jaden McDaniels and a 25 million for Nas Reed. Well, I just wanted to point that out. That's a lot of money. Well, and not just that. All of those guys are now on extensions to take them through at least the next three seasons. That was just next year. No, no, but I'm just saying, right? So McDaniels is going to be on year two of his extension. Gobert just got extended. Reed just got extended. Randall just got extended. Anthony Edwards is on his big deal. So what this tells you is that the Timberwolves have decided that this is what they're running with for the next three years. All those guys are pot committed through the 28th season. Yeah, exactly. At least through the 28th. Yeah, yeah. So the next three, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm just saying, like, that's, I'm just, I'm just putting a point on it. So McDaniels and Reed are still probably viable trade options. So they do at least have that in terms of there's flexibility with them. I mean, nobody's going to... If Nas Reed hit the market at that cost, he's going to have suitors. And I like it. We saw enough from the Timberwolves in the second half of last year to feel completely fine with them wanting to run this back. We actually said that the year before, and then they made that massive deal to try to give themselves a little bit more flexibility. And in reality, that's what they did. They traded Karl-Anthony Towns so they could sign Nas Reid off. to this contract and then it still allowed them to keep Julius Randle so when you think of that as like the bigger move there it gave them more depth and more flexibility to just run this back and we'll see like it's now the problem is okay so Terrence Shannon Jr. who gave them good opportunity and good minutes in the playoffs and I liked him when I saw him in summer week last year Rob Dillingham who I'm not very big on those guys are going to have to really start to step up because they're going to lose Nikhil Alexander Walker now they can't afford to keep him I was going to bring him up where were would you like to see him land? I've heard two teams that are out there that are interested. It's Atlanta and Orlando, where I would love to see him in Orlando. You and I have been talking about Orlando a lot, and we like what they're building over there. I think he's just a great fit. I think he's a great fit on the organization, to be fair. Yeah, you know, I... I think with both Atlanta and Orlando, to be honest, though, they have enough depth at the position that he plays that it's not great value for them at this point because he ends up kind of fourth or fifth in their guard rotation. Atlanta, maybe he moves up a little bit because they move Terrence Mann, so I like it more Atlanta than I do with Orlando because with Orlando, look, you're not counting on Jace Richardson, but with Bane, Suggs, and oh, no, I guess, would he slide into the third guard role in Orlando? I think he would. Yeah, I think he'd be the third guard role. Yeah. I take that back. So, actually, I– I like it well enough. Orlando's books are going to start to get a little messy when you look at a deal for him, too, because that's a very expensive team. So, yeah, again, I think is he in that same range as the other guys like Dorian Finney-Smith, these high-end role players? I mean, I think it's the same number. Well, and honestly, he ends up, because of positional need, he probably has more value than Dorian Finney-Smith does on the market because of age and position. Hey, buddy, I think I get to break some news to you, and you're going to love this. Jabari Smith Jr. signing a five-year,$122 million extension with the Rockets, announced 10 minutes ago by Shams. So right, I think you're muted, but I'm very excited for you. No DFS. No DFS. That takes DFS off the board to that entire conversation we just had. This becomes real time. This is high quality podcast right here. This is just like the last episode where we ended it and I was like, who do you think the next player that's going to get traded is? And then Kristaps Porzingis goes to Atlanta. Free agency is happening incredibly fast. Real quick for our listeners out there, if you're not following at Chris Lindsey Hoops on threads, our boy is doing all the work. He is literally updating all these things in real time and sourcing and citing them uh credit to him for this work but i am locked in on what he's doing right now because it's been as valuable resources i found in terms of giving you the information in real time yeah it just feels good i love to be able to break good news to you i love the rockets and i love this player that actually makes me like really excited let's talk about that value$24 million for a guy like Jabari Smith, who you still have stock in? That's really good if you actually believe that he can be the player that you think he can be. And you're not like to a max. You know, one of the rookie max extensions. And again, Raphael Stone just continues to knock it out of the park. Yeah, it's him, Stevens, and Presti have been really great. Like I said, we're going to get to the Eastern Conference. I did just want to bring that up real quick. Yes. Yeah, well, there you go. So again, so we can go back to our DFS talk. So I think more than likely he's going to get an offer from the Lakers. And I think he wants to stay. He'd be around again. But the other options, again, they remain for the same two teams that we were talking about, just about Nikhil Alexander-Walker. You know, I think the Magic and the Hawks would be great places for him to land. I don't like him in Orlando just because with Orlando, Jonathan Isaac still needs to be able to get on the floor because the impact he has and you already have Franz and Powell. I really like him in Atlanta because Jalen Johnson's health is going to kind of always be a thing that we have to monitor because of the way that he plays and he just continues to have injury concerns and DFS gives you a really good amount of security at that position for that player and helps just kind of not have to lean as hard on Jalen Johnson as a defensive player, which he's excellent at, but you can just do some things that let's alleviate a little bit of stress on him. And obviously DFS is at his best as a spot up shooter off of kickouts. And that's what Trey Young is going to give you. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, for as much as we knock Trey Young on this podcast and for good reason, the guy is a gifted passer. That is one of the things that he's, he's led the league in assists multiple times. He, you know, sometimes he's, only passing to his teammates in the positions that he wants them in. That's why he doesn't feel like a Tyrese Halliburton where he's putting them in the best position. Sometimes it's just like a kickout pass kind of thing, but I think he's played off ball a little bit more and now they've got a lot of guys who can handle the ball and get Trey on some like off ball movement, which is, I think that's part of what Quinn Snyder has been trying to implement in Atlanta since he got there. Like, what was it like a year plus two? I mean, has it been two full seasons? Yeah, he's got two. He came in two And at the end of the season before. Yeah. So yeah. Like 170 something games under his belt. If I had to just spitball it. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. All right. So yeah, I think Quinn Snyder, I think this is, this is really starting to, this team is starting to take a Quinn Snyder shape. Yeah. And I think that he's the kind of player that he would appreciate. Yeah, friend of the pod, Zach Lowe, has made the point, but I will go ahead and pat myself on the back because I wrote 1,800 words about Trey Young's change right after I got to see him at the NBA Cup when they were one of the semifinalists here. And just seeing the little distinctions in terms of him just being a little bit smarter about shot decision, playing off ball with a little bit more movement, everything is about change. you know, five to 10%. Yeah. He needs to get this far and he's made that much of a difference, but the fact that he wouldn't make the change at all was, you know, it is important. And like you said, it is, I, hopefully it's a reflection of player and coach finding some commonality because Trey young could really benefit from playing in a system like not, I mean, from, from completely buying into a system like Quinn Snyder plays, because it's going to make Trey young look better. in terms of his profile on the national stage, being a little less selfish, getting guys a little bit more involved in ways that are less, you know, I always call it Ron doing the assist where you're kind of forcing players into a position that's not always comfortable for them. It's why a lot of these players end up being very happy to leave Atlanta. And it feels like guys are, you know, hopefully they're kind of building the right type of guys and getting a situation where, look, I'm not, I'm not ready to say Atlanta's got a challenge for the Eastern Conference title, which some people have really kind of gotten in front of their skis on this, but they've made good decisions. I like it. I've liked everything Atlanta's doing. It's so funny. My buddy, Chris, he's been high on the Hawks and all I've been doing in the last couple of years is just dumping all over them about how it's a mid organization. They're not going anywhere. And they're, they're a perennial nine or 10 seed. And it's just like, why be in the middle? Why just be perpetually mediocre? And now they made all these moves and I get a text from Chris and I'm getting super excited about the Hawks and I'm about to text him. And instead Chris texts me and he goes, I'm out on the Hawks after the zinger move. He's completely out. I was like, that made me like them more. I was like, are you kidding? If he can stay healthy, a lineup that is Young, Daniels, Jalen Johnson, Porzingis, and... Who am I missing? Okongwu's probably going to be starting. You either have Johnson or Okongwu starting at the four, so it'll be interesting. Or Rishise. It might be Young, Daniels, Rishise, Johnson, and Porzingis as the starting lineup, and then Okongwu comes off the bench. Yeah, because Okongwu can't really guard fours, although it does depend on the matchup because he is a little bit mobile. But the problem is, You just said if Kristaps Porzingis can be healthy. If he can breathe, apparently. Yeah, exactly. So, like, the guy, look, he has all the known injuries that has now become, like, just an absolute insane number of injuries of marks on his leisure. But now we have the fact that he had something. We still haven't been told what the hell was going on. I mean, yeah. Is everyone else in Boston okay? Because... Yeah, seriously. Was he typhoid Mary in some epidemic that we are going to be... Like, is he doing his Rudy Gobert cosplay? Like, what's going on with whatever the hell is happening? Because a big man who already has lower extremity issues now having respiratory problems? First of all... It's getting a little weird. Separate of the basketball, I worry about a player's health when they have type of respiratory issues and they have the frame and size of somebody like Kristaps Porzingis. But going back to the basketball part of it. Do unicorns have respiratory issues that we need to know about? Yeah, right. But just real quick. Yeah, I agree in general. I like what the Hawks have done. But Jalen Johnson and Christophe Porzingis are so foundational to what they can be. And unfortunately, those are two guys that I just– I have to see that– they're going to have to catch lightning in a bottle for a season. This isn't like a sustainable group that's going to be really good for four or five years. They're betting on next year them hitting on the East being down. That's what this feels like to me. Absolutely. But I think every move they've made has not like– It hasn't hampered the team as far as their long... I think they've made some really strong trades. They fleeced the Pelicans, which I know you want to talk about. Actually, you know what? Do you just want to have that Pelican stock now that we're just dumping on them for getting fleeced by the Atlanta Hawks and everybody else they've ever traded with? Well, okay, so... On our last pod, I briefly went into a conversation about how it feels like we're in a renaissance of organizations being poorly run because of hubris. And I was clearly talking about the Suns and the Knicks and the Mavericks and the Pelicans. And Joe Dumars, with Troy Weaver yagoing in his ear, said, hold my fucking beer, and had one of the worst weeks of organizational decisions we have seen since the Pistons were being lampooned by Troy Weaver like seven years ago. Like, I hated the Jordan Poole deal, but I kind of was holding back a little bit on it. But the more I thought about it, the more it pissed me off. But part of the reason the more it pissed me off is you have Jordan Poole and DeJounte Murray in the backcourt, you know, hypothetically in two seasons, which I already said was a problem. And then you draft Jeremiah Fierce. So you have three guys who can only play point guard, who all have to, like, DeJounte Murray's a deflated asset. Jordan Poole's probably not getting anything on the trade market. We've got to figure out how you're developing Jeremiah Fierce, who cannot shoot the basket from the three-point line on the team. They can't shoot the basketball from the three-point line. Let's start there. That was already frustrating. And then the Derrick Queen deal, which everybody out here has now heard of ad nauseum. But for anybody who didn't read my thing, the night that I was, before I was doing the full breakdown of the cost of the deal, just breaking down the fit, the idea of Derrick Queen, one, let's talk about culturally, a player who there was questions about his ability to stay locked in on his conditioning and his weight is going to go to New Orleans, which just as a city is a very difficult city for any Anybody to not gain five pounds in when they first move, but then you're going to pair him with Zion Williamson off the floor. I don't want those two guys hanging out. And then on the floor, there are two bigs who need to be on ball who can't defend and can't shoot. So now you have all these non-shooters and a bunch of bigs that can't defend. This team is going to be a mess and they don't have their draft pick from next year after they're going to suck. And see, you know, Sometimes we announce when we are about to cook, and other times it just kind of happens impromptu. And that was Aaron Bullwinkle cooking for a minute, and it was wonderful to listen to. Thank you for... You just said everything that I wanted to say, so... I've needed to get that off my chest. There's not enough characters through text messages for me to subject my friends to how I really felt about this whole thing. But it was, I mean, I was messaging you on draft day. Like it was just. I remember the Troy Weaver text you sent me. You're like, don't we have enough evidence that Troy Weaver is just not good at this job? And I was like, I was like, I think it's like the same thing as like the Belichick thing. head coaches. Like, if you look at Belichick's head coaching tree, it's actually terrible. It's like Josh McDaniels keeps getting a head coach job. Yeah, Josh McDaniels keeps getting hired because he was tangentially associated with Bill Belichick. It's the same way that Troy Reber, he ran Detroit into the ground, and then he still keeps getting other jobs because they're like, well, he did work for Sam Presti for a while. He must know something. And the crazy... The crazy parallels. Like, shout out to Sam Vassini who broke this down. The number seven pick being our boy Killian Hayes in Detroit. Him trading to bring in veteran players who are on longer contracts and getting rid of unprotected. Like, all the stuff that he did structurally to set Detroit back into being an organization that tied the record for losses in a season. He comes to the next place and Joe Dumars goes, you know who I should hit up for the decision-making? I've got a guy. Let me call Troy. And he's like, you know what? It didn't work the first time, but you brilliant bastard. Let's run it back. Like, what the fuck are we doing? I mean, what if, what if like, it's just because he was in Detroit and he's like, you're a Detroit guy, right? And so, and then I heard the other thing that was funny is I can't remember if it was on C Salah, who's the guy who took over for Landry Fields or who it was that had a relationship in New Orleans who clearly had the Intel about how much John Joe Dumars cared about Derrick Queen to know they could squeeze for that. Nobody moves an unprotected pick to get up from 23 to 13. That is just not even sensible value. You're not getting into the heart of the lottery. You're getting into literally the penultimate pick in the back end of the lottery for a guy that like, I don't even care how you feel about Derrick Queen. Next year's draft is a good draft. It's just every part of it. New Orleans is really going for the crown of just like the worst run organization. And it's not even just the front office. It's their facilities. It's their health coaches. It's like their decision-making top to bottom. It's even the players and the personnel. Everything about them is just such a And you just, you kind of wonder like, is basketball long for new Orleans? You and I've had that talk. If they change their name to the tropics, I would be 0% surprised. Like that is the level of ineptitude that we're now functioning at. And like, I understand. Change it to like an actual corporate sponsor just so they can have enough revenue to stay in business. Like they might need a new Orleans brawny paper towel guy. They're just going to be the new Orleans. But yeah, they're going to, it's going to sell it for parks. They're going to start having big ass logos across the chest. Like they won't even have room for the guy's names on there. The Florida Lee is going to be replaced by like a Bojangles logo. I'm telling you, man. It's like a, like a Crescent moon and yeah, New Orleans. It's just, it's tough basketball right now. We can be done with it after this, but I implore anybody who's listening to this, who thinks that I'm being too harsh or anything else, go look at that roster and tell me how in the hell you can think that's anything better than the 13th or 14th team in the West. Yeah, they've just won 21 games. They don't have their own pick. And they're probably going to win somewhere in the same ballpark of like 25 to 28 games. They're going to be in that same range. I just don't really see that. And especially like you're banking on Zion being healthy, which makes me think like a Zion trade has to be somewhat at least talked about. But so again, if any of that is the case, right? Like I'm totally fine with the construct, the conceit being that we're going to trade Zion. Then you cannot get rid of your draft pick next year. Yeah. If you're going to get rid of Zion, then you need your draft pick. It makes no sense because the thing is, if you're, if you are going in, like if you're, if you think you're going to be good enough, then you're just lying to yourself. Nobody believes that. But if you think, okay, we're going to figure this out and go into a developmental mode, then why in what everybody thinks is going to be another really good draft, would you get out of there? draft as a team that always has to function financially in a way that has to be smart enough where you're on lower end contracts because you're not going to be a you're obviously not a big draw just like every step of it you're just like this you know you didn't miss a step you fell all the way down that stairway in guangzhou or wherever in china you fell down from the top all the way bottom into some slow motion like it's an austin powers movie like it is incredible Yeah, New Orleans is becoming the real butt of the league and the butt of the joke. So a few more little housekeeping notes on the Western Conference and we can switch over to the East. Kyrie signs his extension. He's going to miss most, if not all, of next year. And opts out to take less money to sign the extension, by the way, for anybody out there. Again, who else was he getting that money from? Well, no, but all I'm saying is if you're Kyrie, it made sense for you because of your situation. But he also could have just opted in and punted until next year. But he actually helps the Mavericks by doing this as well. Yeah, I mean, I think that he likes that organization. Yeah, Nico and him are boys, all that. But I'm just saying because of the conversation we were having about LeBron, we just watched– Kyrie and LeBron, who are inextricably linked, do some of what we were talking about. Circumstances are very different. He's an injured player. He's got a bad injury history. It might be his last big contract. But it was still just kind of an interesting thing for Kyrie to do. Yeah, absolutely. And the right thing. I think everybody expected it. Don't get me wrong. And Chris Paul has been rumored to be circling two teams because he wants to be closer to home. The Suns and the Clippers. Two teams he's played for before. Yeah. If I had to guess, I don't think he's going back to the Suns. What? Why? How does– Why would anybody want to be on that organization if they had a choice not to be? Why does it make sense for player or organization? Is Chris Paul better than Tyus Jones at this point? Probably not. Did Tyus Jones make a huge difference? I mean, Chris Paul's maybe a little bit better of a defender, but not by much just because of the degradation. Maybe because Chris Paul's a better lob thrower for their new center, Mark Williams? Sure, you know, until William's body dissolves like a wet bounty sheet. This is the Hornets just doing everything they can to throw him at somebody. Anytime there's a Charlotte center, they're like, give me that. They didn't go after Yusuf Nurkic, it's just that they already got rid of him. So that's a nice little transition to the Eastern Conference. Yusuf Nurkic going to Utah and probably what feels like a salary dump move. They'll probably waive him or if not, just like. Well, I mean, I don't really think it can't totally be a salary dump because it was a player for player. Both guys are expiring contracts. But the Hornets also got a second round pick. And Colin Sexton, he's an actual serviceable player. No, but so that's what I'm saying, though. Utah. Utah got the pick. Utah got the second-round pick, you're saying? Yes. Oh, you said the Hornets. Okay. I'm not sure. Well, now I need to look this up because I don't know. I can't remember which one happened. Somebody got the second-round pick. It would make a lot more sense if Utah did get the draft asset because then the trade makes a lot more sense. I don't like– you and I have talked about this online. I don't like this deal for the Hornets, mainly because I like Colin Sexton– But if you're the Hornets, right now at your guard forward positions, Brandon Miller can play two or three. But you've got LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller kind of as your one and two. And then you've just invested draft resources on Conquernipple and Liam McNeely, who are two to threes. But Colin Sexton is not a point guard. He's not your backup point guard. The only way Colin Sexton plays backup point guard is if he dribbles the ball up the court and then gets the ball to Brandon Miller on, you know, pin downs and stuff where he gets the offense going Once he gets kind of coming around a curl, getting downhill, I just think you're taking in college sections. Now we're going to be on a contract season as the young bull trying to definitely earn himself a good deal. So I just feel like you're going to be taking away too many developmental opportunities in terms of shots and minutes from all the youth you just brought in there. It's, it's a weird deal to me. Well, yeah, it hits, you know, Colin sections career high and assists is 4.9. So he's not exactly Alonzo ball. Like, level replacement because Lonzo isn't actually a gifted and willing passer. He's more a LiAngelo ball level of passer than he is a Lonzo ball level of passer. But anyways. Well, by the way, the Hornets were the one who got the second round pick, by the way. So how the hell did they get a good player, like a player I like, and a second round pick for a guy who's useless and Yusef Nurkic? I mean, I get what Utah was doing because they needed to quit. Like, one of my complaints about Clayton Jr. going there was because of the glut of guards that they have. They're offensive-minded guards and not real playmakers, which I think is going to be one of the challenges for Clayton Jr. But why are you giving up an asset to bring in Yusef Nurkic, who isn't going to, like, what does Yusef Nurkic give you if you're Utah? No one likes the guy. Yeah, and like you don't want anyone that's like defended him. They're like, this guy, it's kind of a dick. So it's not like he's like, oh yeah, he's going to mentor our young bigs. And he's like, no, he's not. Yeah, everybody's like, Walker Kessler's probably the adult in the room. Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying. That's why it felt to me that this wasn't like a player that Utah would keep. I think they were trying to dump the Colin Sexton money, but then they sent out an asset to do it. That's the part that's weird. It's a negative asset to me. And then they got a guy like Nurkic. Why would they bring him in? I don't get that deal at all for Utah. I get it somewhat for the Hornets because at least if nothing else, you still got an asset out of it. And Colin Sexton's not like, he's not untradeable. But it makes, yeah, it makes very little sense from the Utah perspective. I mean, Nurkic shouldn't even play minutes ahead of Filipowski. And whatever, we don't like, You know, we didn't really talk much about– never mind. We don't really need to talk about Utah. We can keep it moving. No, I don't–

SPEAKER_01: 53:28

yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 53:29

That's a whole different– Yeah, that's fine. We can keep it moving. Was there anybody in the East? You know, Bobby Portis signs his extension. Is there any teams in the East that you particularly wanted to talk about? Did you want to talk about the Alonzo Ball trade? You know, the– Yeah, we can talk about that a little bit. I like that for Cleveland because I think what Lonzo Ball gives you as a connective passer is exactly what Cleveland's been working towards in terms of how their offense has been structured, and he's just the perfect guy for that. Now, the problem is, and it was the reason a lot of people were upset, and I get it. I'm not an Isaac Okoro guy. I think we know what he is, and unfortunately what he is is probably a player that is so limited as a shooter that he's not a functional everyday NBA player. He's in that... Josh, no offense to your boy, Josh Akogi kind of realm of like, if he's giving you spot minutes, you're fine. But once you have to lean on him, you're going to be in trouble. But the Bulls, I think just kind of it hit the end of the road with having two big, bear the burden of Lonzo Ball's injury history, and I have no insight on this, but it's tough for a team to have to contend with four seasons of an injured player. There's just a lot of resource allocation and contending with that in terms of the emotional and intellectual part of it that I think the Bulls just decided to get off of. I get that. I understand everything about what you're saying. But is it impossible for the Bulls to ask for any kind of draft compensation in trades like this? They just love a player-for-player swap. They love never paying any kind of luxury tax. They love rolling out this mediocre team in our third largest market in the NBA, a team that has championship history, and they refuse to ask for an asset. Or if they ask, apparently they get told no, and they go, okay. They just take it. I don't know the deal for them. I think they, there, there were reports from Kevin O'Connor and other people like trusted NBA sources that said that there were first trap first. I'm sorry. First round draft pick compensation offers for Lonzo ball during the draft. Now, maybe it's a late first round pick and it's not super valuable, but you could just do that deal. Why not just take the pick instead of a player, an Isaac Okoro, who you know is rotational at best? He couldn't even... I don't get it. Not only is he questionable as rotational at best, I, he can't shoot the ball. I don't know if anybody has paid attention to the roster composition of the bulls, but they are loaded with players who can't shoot the basketball. Um, and they just keep like bringing in more players who can't shoot the basketball and they fired their shooting coach who had had some success with helping modest Pazellas and Josh Giddy shoot the basketball. I. Giddy had a career high in three point shooting and they got rid of the coach. I, um, I don't understand the thinking behind why they never seem to get any draft capital in their deals. And you and I talked about it when we evaluated the Darren Fox deal. We've talked about it a couple of other times. Maybe the argument for them, and I can see it, is that they have so many young players that eventually you hit a cap of what you think. But no matter what, having assets is having assets, right? And if you're a team that's trying to work your way into a certain level, asset accumulation should still be part of the construction and the thought. I don't really get that part of it. I also don't know what the validity to what the Lonzo Ball offers were. If teams were offering a low first round pick, it seems kind of silly not to. to get in there because this was a draft that I think there's going to be some guys in that 25 to 30 range who were very interesting projects and definitely at least rotational NBA players, including Liam McNeely, who we already talked about, who would have been a player that offered exactly what they needed from a shooting standpoint. But I don't know if that's true, and so I'm not going to bury them if that wasn't. The deal on itself doesn't really do much for me either way, But your point and your greater point is something I have no arguments against. And I'm going to be sheepish here because I don't want to be too negative about the organization. Yeah, I know when we talk about the Bulls, I'm usually very careful not to put you on the spot. But I have to read this to you. I follow Chicago Bull Central on threads. It's a great account if you like to, you know. get an outsider's perspective on the Chicago Bulls organization. And they had a post and it just said, we really traded our core for nothing. So this is who the Bulls traded is DeMar DeRozan, Zach Levine, Alex Caruso, and Lonzo Ball. Here's what they got in return. Josh Giddey, Kevin Herter, Chris Duarte, Isaac Okoro, Zach Collins, Trey Jones, their own 25 first-round pick, and two second-round picks. That is what they got. I don't think that's very good. No, that's not. That's just not very good. It's just organizational misconduct, and I'm going to leave it at that. I just don't understand what the Bulls are doing, and I want the Bulls to be good, damn it. And from what I understood, they were out there dangling Kobe White. Well, now that– Now the talk is apparently they're trying to trade Io, which I also like. I'm a huge, and I actually like this human, but I like him as a guy. No, I love Io. That's part of my problem. I think he's a perfect third guard in the NBA as a guy that can toggle on and off ball, plays good defense. He's turned himself into a good enough shooter. I think it's silly to get rid of that type of player, particularly if you want to play an up-tempo brand of basketball that the Bulls want to play because you're going to have to have strong players in your defense reserves that can give you consistent long stretches of minutes because you want to be keeping the pace playing at this level. Yeah. Look, we can even real, even the draft picked, even the draft pick to me, reflected, like, for those that don't know, they took Noah Essengay. I wrote kind of substantially about that pick. Feel however you want to feel about Essengay, but the thing I don't get is his main concern is whether or not he's going to be able to shoot the basketball. For those keeping score at home, that means the Bulls' last four first-round picks, last five first-round picks, pardon me, have been Patrick Williams, Daylon Terry, Julian Phillips, Matas Bozelis, and Noah Essengay. And every single one of those guys, their swing skill is shooting. The only one who was looked decent as a developmental project as a shooter is modest. Yeah. I, I, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know what they're valuing in these, in the drafts. And I don't know what they value when they make these trades. They should be trying to restock the cabinet and they seemingly just keep taking lesser players and then getting no compensation in return for doing so. I that's, that's the end of my, I do want to, because I always want to be fair... Essingate makes a lot of sense for how they're trying to play in terms of an up-tempo brand of basketball. Josh Giddey, for as much as everybody wanted to bury the trade, I liked the trade at the time it happened. I kind of got off ship. I'm not a big Josh Giddey guy, but people are, and I get it, and I actually think when you look at it in terms of the production they got and what they think the player can be, the Caruso trade, despite them not getting draft equity, is a better deal than people are giving it credit for. It is. It is. Yeah, you know, and I also think... At the time, I thought it was a little bit of a stretch, but I also was like, guys, you do realize that they're trading essentially their sixth man for a guy who was a starting card on the Thunder last year. And a guy

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:22

who...

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:23

No, and when people said, oh, well, they didn't get a first round pick at it or a second round pick. I'm like, well, Josh Giddey was the first round pick because he's still on his rookie scale contract. So technically, he is the asset that they... Exactly. And had Josh Giddey, like let's just in a vacuum, Josh Giddey was in last year's draft. Josh Giddey would have been a top five to six pick in last year's draft. You know what I mean? And so like any of those things, I think sometimes people, it's very easy to get caught in the meta narrative of it, which is totally fair. But, you know, the Bulls have done some things that put them in the right direction of what they want, but they do just have some habits that are very vexing and difficult to get at times. Go Bulls! I want you to be awesome. Like I, I am. That's, that's what I want. So anything that's critical comes from that place. It's not because I'm trying to bury the organization, much like any other organization we talk about. I probably shouldn't have put that caveat on it, but I feel sensitive when I'm ever in this space. I'm just gonna be honest. Well, I just, yeah, I want them to be good. And it feels like they're doing everything they can to not be that. And it's just, it's like you said, vexing might be the best word. Yeah. To their credit. It's, it's not, It's not that they're doing everything to not do that. There are organizations where I'm like, it's that they're doing things in a way that just never aligns with the current. I get zagging, but there's only so much zagging you can do before sometimes you have to go, well, this is how teams do this, and maybe we need to replicate this, and it seems like they are so stubborn about some of that stuff. Yeah, no, I completely agree. Like I said, we just touched on I mean, so we kind of touched on the Bulls. We like the fit for Lonzo in Cleveland. I think he addresses a need. He's a good-sized guard. He's a good on-ball defender. Again, all of this hinging on the fact that is he healthy? But you never really know with a guy like Lonzo. We can stay with Milwaukee. They just signed Bobby Portis for a three-year,$44 million deal. Like I said, they're looking– we talked about Brooke Lopez earlier, possibly– you know, being on the out. So that does leave them with a little flexibility financially. Pat Connaughton, they will probably extend. No, Pat Connaughton opted in. He opted into his player? He had a player option. He already opted in. Okay. So again, so Brook Lopez does leave in free agency. That does create a little bit of cap space for a team that needs to kind of build around the edges. Is there anybody that you've been looking at that Milwaukee should be looking at? Well, I mean, I think if they could have their druthers, Miles Turner would have to be at the very top of their wish list if they can afford him because he's the perfect replacement for Brooke Lopez, right? Like if the style of play makes a lot of sense, you know, but I don't know if they can get in on that financially. And I don't know that Indiana is going to, you know, let Miles Turner go, but that's the, that guy just immediately jumps to the top of the list for me for what would make the most sense for the Bucs. Yep. Orlando's been declining a few players options. I think Mo Wagner had his, his option was declined, but I think they're working toward re-signing him. Yeah, they have burnt rights on him. And I mean, I think everybody would be completely stunned considering the season Mo Wagner had last year before he got hurt, which was one of the, he was one of the most impactful offensive performers off the bench and one of the most efficient. And then there's the additional element of like, look, This isn't a Thanasis situation. Like, Mo Wagner is a very productive and high-quality player, and his brother is one of your franchise pillars. You have to assume that they're going to bring him back. Yeah, I would be surprised if they didn't. Yeah, but it feels like to me that... Orlando still got another move to make. And I just don't, I'm trying to think of like what it is they're trying to, I mean, they could obviously use more shooting. That's never going to be a thing that they don't need considering the, the two guys they have as the head of the snake with, you know, Bankaro and Wagner, they're not, high-end three-point shooters. They don't shoot a high volume of them. But I'm trying to, like I said, we've already linked them to a couple of guys that we talked about, Nikhil Alexander-Walker, Dorian Finney-Smith. I feel like there's still a move away. And Orlando's becoming my dark horse team to take the East, or at least compete for the top spot in the East. And I'm still wondering, where is Detroit? They have been very quiet lately. Well, I think that's because they're worried about the Malik Beasley news. That's definitely got to be at the forefront of their thinking because Malik Beasley, obviously, they were already going to have to contend with the fact that he was a UFA and was going to command some pretty good money and they were going to have to make a decision about what... what is the right amount of money to pay for Malik Beasley? Because for as good as Malik Beasley looked for them, he obviously was a little challenged in the playoffs. And I think you can also talk yourself into the reality that part of the reason Malik Beasley looked that good is because of the steps forward that Kate Cunningham took. And maybe you can find another shooter, possibly, I mean, they're probably not going to hit 319 threes, right? Like he hit the second most threes in the league last year, but you can probably talk yourself into that. And now because of the news with the gambling allegations and the Look, even if these don't prove out to be true, Terry Rozier's season after his allegations, I don't know if anybody saw what happened, but... Jesus Christ, was he bad. Now, maybe he was carrying a guilty conscience. Maybe it was just the pressure of the circumstances. Who knows? But Malik Beasley isn't necessarily the most mentally tough player. No offense to him, just in terms of how we think about him. So if you're the Pistons, this probably has to change your thought process. They've got to be, I think, a team that may be looking at Nikhil Alexander-Walker because I think they have a little bit of cap flexibility themselves. I also think that part of it, too, is if you look at the Pistons, their big move is Is Jay and Ivy coming back? You know, I think that they get to look at their roster and feel very comfortable with what they did and knowing that one of the most important players for the first half of their season comes back this year. And that is going to be kind of their biggest addition. Yeah, I mean, people have been really forgetting about that guy. So, yeah, you're right. I mean, I'm guilty of it, too. You just keep forgetting that he got injured and they because I think it's because of how well Detroit played without him that people kind of like, you know, turned. I wouldn't say turned away from him, but I think they marginalized him a little bit. by saying that maybe he wasn't as necessary to the team's success, even though he's still a very good young player with freaky athleticism and does a lot of stuff that could be very helpful to this Detroit team. Again, with the East as wide open as it is, you've got Atlanta. I'm not ruling out Indiana still, even despite the Halliburton injury. Detroit, New York, and Cleveland. And then after that, It's a very gettable division. Orlando, I'm sorry. I forgot to include Orlando. That's why. Yeah, the East is wide open. Yeah, sorry. It absolutely is. And you know what? Boston, I think we have to give a lot of credit. I think that's something we haven't done yet. The moves that Brad Stevens made to save that organization, about$260 million in taxes and second apron penalties. That was so good. And he got assets back, which is insane. He had two bad contracts in Drew Holiday and Christoph Swarzingas, and he ends up netting three second-round picks. Plus, he gets a guy like Niang, who's like a rotational guy. And the Boston fans are going to love George Niang. Because he's just their type of guy, right? Like, he talks so much shit. He's kind of a, like, he's kind of the natural progression of Brian Scalabrini. Like, this kind of out-of-shape, weird, awkward player who still just gets it done and chirps a lot. Like, he's very entertaining in that way. And, like, they're going to like that. Brad Stevens deserves all the credit. I want to go back to Detroit because I just thought about something. A player that I think to watch for them, who I, this just popped in my head, but makes a lot of sense for what they need, Gerson Yabusele. is definitely not staying in Philadelphia. And I think his style of play as a stretch power forward who bangs, that's a guy that I think... They don't need another fighter in Detroit, Aaron. But he doesn't have... First of all, I think they are kind of leaning into that, but I also don't think that that's like his full on... Another guy who's going to throw hands? No, he throws his wide ass around. He has not been like a guy getting in fights. He's just been hitting... He's... He's half Rick Mahorn, just from the waist down, not the waist up. Right? But I think that he'll– The team that I've heard him link to is the Spurs. I mean, he makes sense there too. He has a connection with Wim Benyama. Yeah. But if you're the Spurs, look at the Spurs 2, 3, and 4s and the interchangeability, but also like– they have like 10 guys that play shooting guard, small forward, or power forward right now. I don't think they– They don't need to bring in another guy. Like, I loved Bryant, the kid that they took out of Arizona. Carter Bryant, the kid they took out of Arizona. I'm not even sure how much he's going to get on the floor right now when you look at Harrison Barks, Kelton Johnson, Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle. Dylan Harper's going to play at some, too. Jeremy Sohan, like, it gets– they have a glut there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they've got moves to make. They've got options there. I think a player that a lot of teams are going to be keeping a very close eye on, especially just considering his skill set and the necessity that it will command around the league, is Ty Jerome. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But the thing– Ty Jerome, unfortunately, is a victim of his own success in some ways because he was so bad in the playoffs outside of that 127-point performance that now teams are skittish thinking that because of the injury history and how good he was during the regular season that the number is not going to fit what you expect as the production, particularly in the points in the games that matter. But, look, a guard that's a versatile combo guard always has a place in this league, especially a guy that can get hot. he really Sam Donald himself had a great regular season and then blew it in the last game of the year. And the playoffs probably cost himself about, you know, 30 to$50 million over the term of his next contract. I mean, he's going to get paid, but he could have been commanding like a much higher number had he had a more impactful performance. But yeah, it's a, I don't know. The, the, the whatever, whatever, The high end of the mid-level exception is like$14.7 million or something like that. A lot of people think that he could slot right into one of those on a contending team if he wanted to. But that's what you're making is$14 million, which if he had had, like I said, a better playoff performance, maybe he's looking in the$18 to$20 million range. And your analogy is perfect because Cleveland, much like Minnesota, you know what? I think we're going to be fine without you. We were cool to let you off, man. We love you. We appreciate what you did. But we're going to go ahead and let some other guy take this role. So Sam Merrill is going to be prioritized. Oh, yeah. That was another one I forgot to bring up. Sam Merrill. That's a nice re-signing at a nice number. I think everybody knew that they were going to work harder to get him than they were Ty Jerome because the cost difference and the fact that the body of work in terms of health, defensive consistency, and the fact that one guy has to command the ball a little bit more to get going, whereas Sam Merrill is just purely additive or he's not on the floor, right? If he doesn't have it going, you're just kind of like, thanks, we'll see you next week. Yeah, I mean, they still, you know, Cleveland's got salary cap constraints as well. They've got four guys at the top they have to pay. They've got Mitchell, Garland, Mobley, and Allen. They're still paying all those guys. Wait, wait. DeAndre Hunter makes like$27 million this season. Does he really? Yes. DeAndre Hunter, like I'll look up the number right now, but DeAndre Hunter. That's a lot of money for DeAndre. Maybe I'm a little off. Maybe it was 22, but it's not an insignificant number for what he is. And it is actually part of the problem with the deal for him and the fact that they may not be able to move him. He makes 25 million next season, 24 million next season, 25 the following season. Yeah. I mean, he got, he got signed to that big contract. I mean, it was four for 90 million by Atlanta and he, It felt like a little bit steep, but his value was oversized in Atlanta, and it's actually hurtful in Cleveland because of that number. And that's why they made the deal for Karis Levert because Levert was going to be a free agent, and so it was going to be harder to control him. So they called themselves bringing in Hunter, who they got for two more years, but then they got to really look at DeAndre Hunter. And the thing about DeAndre Hunter is he can shoot the hell out of the ball, but that's all he actually gives you. Like when you watch him play, and he doesn't pass the ball, he mucks up their timing and spacing because he's a black hole. And defensively, his reputation is here and his execution is like somewhere down here. And I need him to actually enter the screen. Is there anybody else in the East? There's been a lot more movement in the West. Is there any other free agency, something you want to cover in the Eastern Conference? There's nothing that pops off of my head that was something kind of like bigger. Do you remember any other kind of nibbles around the fringes that were stuffed? We did forget about the reigning champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They made two quiet, small moves that I thought were really nice. Three years,$24 million with a team option for Jalen Williams, J. Will. That's the center. And then three years,$9 million for A.J. Mitchell. The guard that showed a lot of promise before he got injured last season and had a weird one game situation. A couple of minutes stint in the NBA finals. Your least favorite guest appearance in the entire playoffs. But I like A.J. Mitchell a lot. He's fearless. He's a good player. He's got good size. And then Jalen Williams, he just feels like another one of those locker room guys that Oklahoma City loves. I mean, everyone on the team loves him. And he's skilled. Don't get me wrong. They're not just keeping him around because he's a fun guy to hang with. He's also a good passer. He's a willing shooter, especially at his size. I actually wanted to look at this and wanted to see what his three-point percentage was last year because I actually thought that it was really good. And then the minutes, I mean, with as big as the West is getting with all these centers, having this much size, now the Thunder have Hartenstein, Jalen Williams, and they just drafted Thomas Sorber. So they've got three dudes who have really soft hands. They defend the rim well, and you can almost run your offense through them a little bit because they're really good passers. Yeah, the last one is actually one of the keys to what they've constructed there and also one of the things I really love. One, you and I had talked about two weeks ago whether or not Jalen Williams may end up a cap casualty and both you and I had said how much we like him and we hope that he was brought back. So I'm very happy to see this. It's really reflective of his impact as a locker room guy because if you're projecting where Jalen Williams is on the depth chart for this team two years from now, he's the maybe the third or fourth big, right? And he's kind of already there, but he's been very good at just coming in and giving the minutes that he needs to. But the developmental ecosystem that they're putting Thomas Sorber in as a guy who was a fringe lottery pick, he went number 15, but he has some challenges in terms of mobility. He's not the tallest guy. He's 6'9", at center, but very long. But now he gets to play with two centers, Jalen Williams being an undersized guy, Isaiah Hartenstein being a phenomenal rebounder and passer who blend some of the best skills that this guy has in a way that he's going to learn from both of these guys. And like, I may be accrediting too much of this to Sam Presti's ability to play four-dimensional chess. I'm using that multiple times now. But you can't ever oversell Sam Presti's ability to do that. And so it's just very– it's smart. It's always smart. Because even if they have to get off Jalen Williams, somebody will take that contract.$8 million a year for what he gives you is not– And they got a team option on the last year. Which they always get. Which they always get. So they're like, hey, we're going to pay you. We're going to take care of you. It's the same thing they did with, I think they did the same thing with Wiggins. And I want to say they did the same thing with Joe, but I might be wrong. Wiggins, Joe and Hartenstein, I believe all have team options on their last year. Yeah. So Hartenstein's the obvious casualty. It's the$29 million that he's owed whenever the extensions kick in for the big three. But then that's like Oklahoma city has positioned themselves to, to keep restocking the cabinet. Hartenstein's going to do just fine. And he's going to be a thunder legend forever. I think he understood that when he signed the contract. And again, it's why the thunder took care of him in the first place. He made it. it's something like two years almost 60 million with the team and then he gets the team option for the last year which is another 20 you know it's 29 million there but And he's already earned the entire contract. But he's earned it. He's already earned the entire contract. Yes. So Oklahoma City, it's the only organization that I know that players are happy to get sent there even when they were bad. Because they're like, I know this organization is going to take care of me no matter what. And they always do. They're like, Dan Presti goes to these guys and he's like, hey, we're going to trade you. Is there anywhere you want to go? Because we can try and make that happen if we can. And I respect that. They appreciate it. Austin Rivers has talked about it. Al Horford's talked about it. These guys get taken care of in the Thunder organization. And then they go on to other places. And Oklahoma City is happy to see them go. But they find ways to replace these guys with these replacement level players without paying the high price tag on the veterans. Well, and your point. like going back to the conversation about smartly run organizations, when you have veterans of the type of Q rating of Chris Paul and Al Horford amongst their peers, who then leave an organization that they got traded to that at the time was not supposed to be in a good circumstance, they leave and the team treats them the way they did. That only adds to why people, like you're saying, it's that conversation of like, if you're a free agent and you've had a conversation with those guys and they're like, look, Oklahoma City's going, the fan are awesome the organization is well run and if they don't end up deciding to keep you they're actually going to make sure that they do the best thing for you like how many organizations in the nba get to claim that chris paul told them exactly where he wanted to go and they're like hey just work with us this year commit to what we're trying to do they had that amazing run which got chris paul on a lot of people's radars i mean not not to say that he wasn't valued around the no but it brought him back up because his perception was really low And they built it back up and they're like, wow, he's still like a high level player in this league. And, you know, the Phoenix Suns went out and got him. Al Horford, they were like, hey, can you play every other day? And then we'll trade you back to Boston. And they got a first round pick out of that deal, by the way, from Boston, which was worth it for them because they won a championship. Worth it for Oklahoma City because they got an asset out of a guy who, whenever he left the Sixers, people were questioning whether or not Al Horford was done in the league.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:37

And

SPEAKER_00: 1:21:37

so whenever you get this ability to rehab your image with the Thunder, now obviously they're not in that mode anymore. Yeah, that's not part of their market

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:47

anymore.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21:48

They're locking up their whole roster. They made the move with Dylan Jones, a guy they traded, I think, five second round picks to get. Yeah, because they had... They had 25 second-round picks. And so if you're trading one-seventh of your haul, who cares? Yeah, then they attached a second-round pick to Dylan Jones to send him to Washington to get a guy that they waived so they could create a roster spot, presumably for Thomas Sorber. Yeah. So, you know. And meanwhile, they got decent minutes from Dylan Jones last season. Yeah, they got decent minutes. He got a championship. And now he gets a chance to show what he can do in Washington, a place where he can find a role. Although, Jesus Christ, Washington has four old guys and everybody else needs to be carded to go buy alcohol. They've got nine players underneath the age of 23 that all want to get them up. That is going to be a wild circumstance to watch this coming season just in terms of their brand of basketball. We don't really have to go into Wizard's Corner or anything. Hey man, that's another another organization where I'm like they're kind of following that Oklahoma City method they've got a bunch of guys that they're you know they're veteran veterans heavy and these guys need to kind of rehab their stock. Now, obviously putting in Washington hasn't been a great place to raise your profile in the last couple of years, but this is an organization that's they're, they're, they're gaining assets. They're rehabbing these there. They have these veteran guys who are going to mentor their young guys and they seem like they have a plan and a direction in place, which is more than I can say for what Washington's been in the last several years.

UNKNOWN: 1:23:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23:37

So. Yeah. And in fairness to Washington, look, hey, they rehabbed Jordan Poole's career a little bit in terms of his perception. I mean, like by the numbers.

UNKNOWN: 1:23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23:48

They had a good year. They were able to move from him in a way that made a lot of sense for them. So I think it worked out for both player and organization. I think CJ McCollum is still going to have some suitors. Yeah, and worst case scenario, he gives you all that financial flexibility we talked about in the last one. McCollum and Middleton are both on expiring contracts. Yeah, and Tork is smart. Yeah, two guys. And Marcus Smart, another guy that's, you know, they're hoping they can get back and he can still be, you know, he's taking a large toll. And Kelly Olenek, all those guys. And Kelly Olenek, a guy like Kelly Olenek will always have value in the league because of his smarts. That is a guy, you know, he's not the same athlete he was when he was in Boston, but... I mean, he was never really that much of an athlete to start with. You know what I mean? Like... The peak of his athleticism. He's obviously down with that. But yeah, his intelligence will keep him on the floor. But the peak of his athleticism, to use the screen again, was somewhere down there. And now it's like down here. But he is, more importantly, he's like the savvy veteran that teams always kind of like to keep around. I mean, Kelly Olenek could play in the league until he's probably in his late 30s if he wants to because he can shoot the ball. He plays a smart brand of basketball. He doesn't take away. He's a guy that just comes in and does it. Much like Daniel Tice, you know, obviously very difficult players, although kind of stretch bigs who are white guys. But how many places, how many contenders did Daniel Tice go to? He was on the Clippers. He was bouncing. I think he was in Oklahoma city for a short stint. You know, he's been on teams where they were like, Oh, Hey, this guy's got value. We keep seeing him come back around for reasons. Yeah. Yeah. Nick Batum does the same. I mean, there's these like these older veterans being like, how does he keep getting resigned? They're like, he's well liked within the organization and they like his skillset. I guess the one other thing that we should talk about before we get to the kind of close of the show, Masai Ujiri. Yes. We bring up the fact that Masai Ujiri is out as the president of basketball operations in Toronto, even though they kept him around to make draft picks and then fired him. What? The circumstance. So apparently, I read a really good article by Eric Corrine of The Athletic yesterday. Yesterday was Saturday. Yesterday. That was talking about the circumstances that led to this. Apparently, Masai knew he was out two months ago. Masai was in really good standing with one of the part owners whose name I can't remember, but a gentleman by the name of Ed Presley, who has now come to the forefront of running the organization, I think because he has the largest share of ownership. But I may get some of the particulars messed up and Messiah did not get along. Right. And so they Presley decided Messiah was going to get out Messiah politic to be able to go through the draft process. And to me, this is another, like, this is such a dereliction of duty from the Raptors standpoint. And it's not by no fault of Messiah, but like, Colin Murray-Boyles get picked, and it is the most Maasai pick that you could have fashioned from any player that was on this draft board. He's an idiosyncratic player. He's got weird physical skills in terms of he's very long. He's a tweener. He's like a tweener in the position. Yeah, he's wide. He can't shoot, you know. It's just like a Maasai pick, but why, if you're the Raptors and you're so frustrated with this guy, are you then going to let him kind of shoehorn more of this in? So now, like, Jonathan Mogbo, Scotty Barnes, Colin Murray-Boyles, Brandon Ingram, R.J. Barrett, these are all guys that have to see the floor together, and all of them are minus shooters. Like, what are you doing? And then I also heard that there were people within the organization that were thrilled about Maliwak being there for Toronto to draft at 9 And instead, they make that pick and they let him fall to 10 to the Suns. So I had heard... And this is actually a little bit of inside baseball, and I'm not going to say what the source was. But I had heard kind of through channels that the Raptors had some concerns about Malawatch's visa status and the current administration because they repealed all the South Sudanese visas. And I think the Raptors organization decided they didn't want to add that level of headache to them. Now, to what percentage that... That's interesting, actually. Who knows what percentage that came into play? I'm not trying to give you guys like some big... breaking story or anything like that. It was just part of the... It was a consideration. It was a consideration. And I think obviously a very fair one considering the complete instability with everything that's happening with our current administration and how it seeps into everything. And so I agree with you. Malawat should have been the pick there. I think he was the most sensible pick there for them in a lot of ways. But if that is part of it, then I also cannot fault them for that because they are stuck as an organization that functions outside of our country, and they're the only one. Yeah. Before we end this free agency roundup, I just want to pour one out for Vasily Michich. So he takes his time in coming over to the NBA. He finally gets his draft rights picked up by Oklahoma City, who brings him over, signs him to a contract, and then they trade him for Gordon Hayward, so he ends up in Charlotte. Then he gets traded with Nick Richards over to Phoenix, and then in this Mark Williams trade, he got sent back to Charlotte. And in that time, Oklahoma City, the team that originally brought him over, wins an NBA championship. Poor Vasily Michich. He's back on the Hornets. Good God. Yes, I will also say... I just didn't know if anybody knew that he was even part of the Mark Williams trend. I will also say, because you got to see him front and center, the guy... What's that? He's a really gifted passer. He is, but also the lack of athleticism and the inability to knock down shots has proven to be too problematic for him to be a regular player on the floor. And... For whatever he made, I don't remember what league he left from. He was in EuroLeague? I thought he was a EuroLeague MVP. Three years and$24 million by the end of this season. Probably won't get another contract at age 32 as a guy that's not really much of a desired player at this point. I feel okay for him. Yeah, I guess he's right. He did what he should have done. He established a really impressive European resume that gets to be what he's remembered as as a basketball player, and then he got them checks. Yeah. I salute you, sir. But yeah, watching a team win an NBA championship while you get strung out on hornets in the suns, it's a bit rough. Yeah. Just the organizational experience of going from the Thunder... Originally, he refused to come over when his rights were owned by the 76ers who traded his rights to Oklahoma City, I believe in the Al Horford trade. Yeah, that sounds about right. They had the rights to him and he's like, okay, fine, I'll make the move. And then when he made the move, Oklahoma City gave him half a season before they packaged him up and sent him to Charlotte for Gordon Hayward, which Trey mentioned. Which was about the only– in theory, it's the only bad deal that we've really seen Presti do, except for he kind of got rid of Miesich and Hayward completely was a non-factor and then was gone. Yeah, but they only paid him for like half a season. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. That's why it's kind of like in-air quotes. And then he retired. Yeah, you want to talk about pour one out for somebody. Man, Gordon Hayward's career. I thought he was going to end up as like a backup on the Nuggets or something, but he just– It was never really the same. And then, you know, you go, well, see, I thought it was the same thing with Batum. I was like, oh, Batum went to Charlotte. That's where his career died. The second he got out of there and went back to the Clippers, it was like, oh, yeah, Nicholas Batum, still a good, like, rotational guy. Well, what became weird about Hayward And what is the key distinction with these two guys is he got scared to shoot. He refused to shoot. And Nicola Batuma is the exact opposite. Batuma's never seen a shot he didn't like. He gets them up, and he gets them up in the hurry, right? But if Hayward's not– first of all, if you're not making shots, it's problematic enough. If you're not a shot threat once you've lost all your athleticism, what are you on the floor for? He wasn't even looking at the basket. No, no. I mean, like, that second half of the season with the Thunder was weird. He was Ben Simmons-ing the hell out of it. his time on the floor yeah i really thought eventually he was going to turn the corner you know being in a better organization better fit with the roster never happened um yeah so that is our free agent roundup if we even broke a little bit of news during the middle of this one um so uh aaron is there anything else that you wanted to talk about before we uh call it an episode For those that didn't read, I teased it before. I finally kicked off the dust and spent an absurd amount of time on the draft. So if anybody's out there and haven't gotten their draft synopsis, what I like to do is have it feel kind of like a... you know, actually one of the people on threads and I'm just going to blank out on the handle right now, uh, made the point, but it was like kind of a CliffsNotes of the players. And that's what I want to do. I want to hopefully make it be something that's kind of easily digestible for what the best version and my concerns and then fit. And so I did that. As a supplement to that, on Tuesday with some of my fellow Basketball Intelligence Network stars, Nick Agar-Johnson, who's with No Ceilings, and if you don't follow No Ceilings stuff, they're about as good as it gets with the school and college level guys and just draft prep and all that. They have an entire ecosystem that's really awesome of resources and things, so check them out. And then Ray LeBeau, who's both my business partner and co-host on the Basketball Intelligence, the Unrestrict We're going to do an entire kind of draft episode that should be up Wednesday morning that I'm looking forward to getting into to kind of like get the last sort of thoughts out on this draft and being with those guys will help me kind of continue to evolve my feelings about these players before we get into Summer League. And I'll be at Summer League, hopefully from day one. I won't be there all the days because then I'm going to coach at a basketball camp. So a lot of basketball stuff coming down the line. Basketball doesn't stop for you, buddy. Congratulations. I did read your draft review and not preview, but review. And I thought it was great. I love reading your words. I can actually read it in your voice, which is actually really fun. It's a fun thing about recording with you and doing this podcast. And yeah, man, really, really proud of the work. You did a good job. And I learned a lot more about these guys and I need to start doing some more draft prep and I'm going to try that next year. It's just when Oklahoma City was in the finals all the way up until Sunday, I wasn't thinking about anything other than the finals, and I could have been doing some draft stuff. So I'll try again next year, but it's entirely possible that Oklahoma City is in the finals again, and I might just be relying on you a second time around. Well, one of the things that is my goal going forward is because I'm seeing these guys a lot more often, just being here and seeing them at the high school level and hopefully getting back out on the road for some college stuff. I'm going to start creating my own assessments and rankings of this coming draft. Probably after we get off this, I'm going to start getting into stuff a little bit, you know, and I've already been able to see AJ Nybonstad and Darren Peterson and some of the guys that are going to be at the top of this group. But as we record and go on and as the season for next year starts to get going I would love for us to just kind of every once in a while just tap in and maybe have just some superficial player to watch kind of thing yeah who have I seen what's happening you know it doesn't we can do it on the back the very back end but just as like a little check-in or just kind of a general like temperature gauge of some of that stuff because I want to this year I was happy with what I did but I felt like I had to do too much of the work on the back end and I prefer to be able to have it just be a constant evolutionary thing not that I you know we talked on the last episode I was keeping up with the draft and stuff, including interviews and podcasts and all that stuff. But I want to be even more steeped into it because I enjoy the process. And I think that there are certain elements of it that I see that could be hopefully a benefit to people that are interested. So that's something for you guys to look forward to. Well, we appreciate you guys again, as always, please like subscribe and share this podcast. Please check us out on YouTube and we will end this podcast the way that we always do by saying adios.